NYT’s:
Ben Carson was feisty. He was mocking. He was unyielding. And he was unexpectedly theatrical.
Mr. Carson, the doctor whose soft-spoken and sedate style have made his rise to the top of the Republican presidential field all the more puzzling, abandoned his gentle manner on Friday night and delivered a powerful public scolding of the news media that has begun to question his celebrated biography.
In the process, he turned what has become an almost robotic ritual for candidates under attack — the live and often defensive news conference — into an aggressive confrontation, and at times interrogation, of the reporters’ motives and methods.
“Don’t lie,” he told them, interrupting a journalist’s question.
“That is a silly argument,” he said to another.
In a stern admonition to the journalists standing just feet away, Mr. Carson declared, “The American people are waking up to your games.”
At a news conference Friday night in Florida, Ben Carson accused the news media of scrutinizing him more than other candidates.First Draft: Ben Carson Resists Challenges to the Life Story He Rode to Political ProminenceNOV. 6, 2015
The performance, at a news conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., was mesmerizing at times, in part because of the serious personal questions that have been raised: whether he embellished or even made up crucial episodes in his life story, like the attempted stabbing of a childhood friend and his claim that West Point had offered him a “full scholarship.”He lurched forward and backward, at one point recoiling from the microphone for effect. But he remained unflustered throughout.
On stage at presidential debates, Mr. Carson borders on soporific. On Friday night, he was animated and combative.
Pressed to disclose the name of the friend he tried to stab in ninth grade, he surveyed the room like a schoolteacher, asking reporters whether, once armed with the person’s identity, they would sign an affidavit pledging to leave Mr. Carson alone.
“Will you do that? Yes? Yes? Yes? Yes?” he asked each of them. Laughter rose from the gaggle of reporters.
Mr. Carson repeatedly turned the inquiries back on the questioners. He asked the reporters to explain to him why, in his telling, they had not investigated Democratic candidates for president with the same vigor, suggesting a deep-seated bias.
“I do not remember this level of scrutiny for one President Barack Obama when he was running for president,” Mr. Carson said, his voice thick with sarcasm. “In fact, I remember just the opposite. I remember saying, ‘O-o-oh, we won’t really talk about that.’ ”
He mentioned the name of a 1960s-era activist whose well-chronicled interactions with Mr. Obama have long offended Republicans. “Bill Ayers,” Mr. Carson said. “O-o-o-oh, he didn’t really know him.”
As reporters tried to interrupt, peppering him with new questions, Mr. Carson dug in. Why are the president’s academic records sealed? he wondered.
“No, no, no, no — don’t change the topic,” he said, talking over a reporter. “I am asking you, somebody, please, why you have not investigated that. I want to know. You should want to know, too.” (Personal academic records are generally not available to the public.)
Mr. Carson is a first-time candidate for public office, with little experience with the kind of live and antagonistic back-and-forths with reporters that many of his rivals have practiced for years.
But he seemed highly prepared for verbal battle, dominating every exchange and leaving little opening for those trying to pick apart his stories.
He needs to kick some reporter ass. Donald has shown that fighting back is the way to deal with the press fools. Where was or is the investigation of BHO?
I was just talking about him and said he has no fire, perhaps we just haven’t seen any of it til now. This could get very very interesting. If he can effectively bitchslap the MSM with class his numbers could soar.